Re: Proposal - non-free software removal
On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 12:24:33AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 06:29:17PM -0800, Brian Nelson wrote:
> > Anthony Travers <amt-public@dodo.com.au> writes:
> >
> > > Why can't John Goerzen and all the other true believers just get
> > > together to form (for want of a better name) the Debian Non-Free
> > > Package Replacement Group (DNFPRG) with the goal of developing
> > > DFSG-free replacements for all non-free packages currently in Debian?
> >
> > Specifically which non-free packages don't have DFSG-compliant
> > replacements? I thought one of the major reasons for bringing this GR
> > up again was that there are no longer any really important non-free
> > packages.
3270 - not important to me, but certainly crucial in some settings.
arabtex - simile
chinese/english dictionary looks pretty useful (to some people)
edict (japanese/engilsh dictionary). Man, going forth to install now.
gap - computational discrete algebra programs tend to be pretty scarse
and heavily domain specific.
graphviz - already noted several times.
gs-aladdin, etc. - yes, there are other gs packages, and this is not as
important as formerly; this aslo includes necessary file for cjk.
lmbench - !
pcx - I am sure that this will be easy to replace!
rtlinux - sure, of real importance to some people.
scilab - there are probably partial replacements, they would require
enormous application porting.
There is some astronomy and biology stuff that I am not able to judge
the importance of. There is the djb stuff, much of which finally has
reasonable replacement, but whose loss could really irritate some
Debian users, me among them. musixtex, I do not have domain knowledge
about suitability of replacement.
The ocaml and onlisp documentation is certainly useful.
rancid looks really useful to some administrators.
There is some stuff that needs to be moved out. blender is no longer
non-free, and as soon as possible, should be moved to main.
There is some stuff that should be dropped. acroread should be
replaced with a dummy package consisting only of a shell script telling
the user that we can longer redistribute the current version, and how
to get the current version (or how to use xpdf). satan should be
dropped. A satan scan will tell you nothing about the security of your
system. trn is questionable. whirlgif should go. aXe should go.
It is true that there is less mass market, everybody's gotta have
non-free software. But it is not true that parts of non-free are easily
dispensible.
Jim Penny
>
> I think what Anthony was really trying to do was just shut down the
> discussion by inviting supporters of the GR to go distract themselves
> for a few years.
>
> The last time this came up (around July of 2000), the example of
> Netscape Navigator was trotted out time and time again.
>
> Well, the Netscape Navigator problem *has* been solved. Now we've got
> things like bsdgames-nonfree and being held up as examples of software
> that We Cannot Live Without. :)
>
> The whole situation reminds me of arguments about entitlement programs
> in the United States.
>
> --
> G. Branden Robinson | If you make people think they're
> Debian GNU/Linux | thinking, they'll love you; but if
> branden@debian.org | you really make them think, they'll
> http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | hate you.
Reply to: